Behind the scenes of the Minnesota company putting on 68 July Fourth fireworks displays

NINA MOINI: If you have plans to see a fireworks show this weekend, it's likely you'll see the work of RES Pyro. It's a pyrotechnics company out of Belle Plaine that puts on fireworks displays across Minnesota, and also manufactures pyrotechnics for shows internationally. Joining me now with a look inside the fireworks industry is the president and CEO of RES Pyro Will Wallus. Thank you so much for your time this afternoon, Will.

WILL WALLUS: Thank you. Thank you for having us.

NINA MOINI: I'm very excited to learn about this. Fireworks displays are so much a part of people's, just, memories and bring so much excitement to people. I imagine it's a really busy time for you right now. How many shows are you going through this weekend?

WILL WALLUS: Absolutely, yeah. This is our busiest time of the year. We have 12 shows just today. And in the window of time around the 4th of July, we'll be putting 68 shows up in the Minnesota area.

NINA MOINI: Wow, that's amazing. And then, besides just putting on the shows, you're also manufacturing the fireworks. And I understand that's kind of unique.

WILL WALLUS: Yes, actually, there's very few manufacturers in the United States that produce stage product. We produce product for concerts and sporting events. We produce stuff for the Super Bowl, different traveling tours, artists, famous names that you've probably heard. We produce the products right here in Minnesota.

NINA MOINI: That is so cool. I have to ask how you got involved in the pyrotechnics industry.

WILL WALLUS: Actually, a number of years ago, my family was in the business when I was growing up. My uncles were in it. And then I actually responded to an ad here on Craigslist, of all things, and went out to a show and got involved. The bug bit me. And I've been in there ever since. A couple of years ago, the board of directors for RES called and said, we're looking to make a change, and we'd love to have you pick up the baton and take the company forward. So that's how we are today.

NINA MOINI: And so you mentioned 68-ish locations. Are we talking big and small? I mean, that could be almost one in every county. Where could people see some of your pyrotechnics?

WILL WALLUS: Probably as far north as the Brainerd area, as far South as Mankato, throughout the metro. Today, we have St. Louis Park in Bloomington, the New Prague area. Tomorrow will be in Stillwater, Eden Prairie, Lakeville, all dotted all over the Twin Cities metro.

NINA MOINI: Wow. And so give us just a feel, if you can, for all it takes to put on all these shows. I imagine you must have a lot of staff. I imagine it must take months of planning. What's it like?

WILL WALLUS: Absolutely. We have 87 technicians out in the field over the next couple of days, working at all these different locations. And a number of them are doing what are called turnovers, where I have a shoot crew shooting today in Bloomington. And tomorrow they'll be in Lakeville. So those 87 folks go to all these different locations, move the fireworks to those different parks and city and municipal locations. They put up the shows.

To get everything ready for the 4th of July, we actually start our planning back in January, working with the townships and the cities or the events to get all the permits and all the paperwork in place. And then, right around April is when the RES campus turns on and we really start packing. We have about 25 people who work here on our campus, both on the manufacturing side and on the production and logistics side to get all this to go up in the air.

NINA MOINI: Wow, wow. You're bringing a lot of people joy. And it takes a lot of people. But I understand, Will, that there are some kind of particular challenges to this time that the fireworks industry is facing. If you wanted to, could we start with tariffs? And just, how is that impacting what you're seeing?

WILL WALLUS: Sure. Tariffs were really a surprise to the industry back in April. And it impacted a majority of the fireworks companies. As you know, besides the manufacturing that we do here locally in Belle Plaine for the domestic shows and for stage shows, most of the outdoor fireworks you're going to see at most of the festivals and events over the next couple of days actually are made in China. Well, with 147% tariff put on, most of the fireworks companies receive their products between March and May. So it put us right in the crosshairs of the tariffs. And it instantly impacted a number of companies in the United States.

So that's really been a challenge that the industry has been working through. I know there's going to be some significant changes to how business is performed in coming years. I know that there's been some challenges to some of the smaller companies. It was really a surprise to the industry. But we're making it through.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, tell me about-- a little bit more, if you would, about some of the smaller companies, because I also learned-- I didn't know that insurance has been creeping up, or it's been a bit of an obstacle. And that's causing some people to perhaps go out of business or sell. What are you seeing there?

WILL WALLUS: Sure. On the insurance side, the challenge for the industry is, ultimately, it's all around logistics and safety. I mean, everybody gets to see the show. But there's a lot of logistics and safety concerns that come into this.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

WILL WALLUS: There's a lot of insurance concerns. And ultimately, we want to have a show set up here at our facility and then transported by DOT regulations to the shoot site. And then we put it in the air, while a lot of the different companies that are doing the insurance in the industry have really been tightening down. And for us, we're lucky because we have a spread over 3,500 shows around the world and the 500-some shows that we do here in the Midwest. But a lot of companies where, if you only have a dozen shows and you make your entire year, if your insurance rates go up by 30% or 40% in a single year because of transportation costs, that's a really big hit to the bottom line.

Couple that with tariffs, and it's put a number of companies out of business in the United States.

NINA MOINI: Oh, Will, that's really too bad. What do you think is the future of the industry? Or is that concerning to you, that it would be some of the smaller companies not surviving or getting bought up, and then there being only some of the bigger companies around? Do you think that stretches down to the consumers or the way that we experience these shows?

WILL WALLUS: I think one thing that we'll see over the next coming years is-- one of the interesting things about the fireworks industry is it's a generational rational business. Grandfathers have a business. They pass it to their sons, who pass it to their sons, and so on. And one of the concerns that's happening in the fireworks industry these days is the younger generation is not picking up the reins. So there's a lot of folks that are wanting to age out of the business or move on because they're looking to retire, but they don't have somewhere to go.

So companies like ours have been consolidating a lot of that business. So we can still provide great shows for the communities and aggregate those costs of expenses of bringing in fireworks and insurance and so on. So I think you'll see a lot of consolidation in this business, as you have in a lot of other businesses in the United States. But ultimately, we want the shows to continue. We want them to be reasonable and affordable for communities to do so. I mean, there's going to be a lot of transition in the coming years. But the ultimate end result is, I think the consumers, the cities, and the people viewing these shows are going to get a great show overall.

NINA MOINI: And your business obviously doing well. I understand it's also expanding into a bit of other areas. Would you tell me about that?

WILL WALLUS: Sure. When we acquired RES back in 2013, the business was specifically focused around manufacturing fireworks and then shooting shows. But one of the things we identified is, there's a significant logistics piece. There's other areas, like alcohol and gas, that are some areas that we're getting into. So between now and-- 2023 and now, we have purchased a match company that was a manufacturer in Alabama that we brought here to Minnesota to bring new jobs here. We've added a fuels business and a gas business. So if you go to a concert and you see fire at a concert or flames and things like that and those types of effects, we're actually the company that's producing and distributing that product here domestically. We're actually going to, potentially, be the largest manufacturer and distributor of alcohol and gas by the end of this year.

NINA MOINI: Wow. Well, OK, Will, one more question for you. For folks experiencing fireworks this weekend, is there anything that's new or a top-of-the-line firework or something new visually? Or what's kind of on the cutting edge that folks might see?

WILL WALLUS: The one thing that I like to see right now that's happening is the colors. And the product itself is getting brighter and getting sharper. So ultimately, the reds are a deeper red, and the blues are a brighter color. And that's one of the things you'll notice. Yellows are a big thing. Oranges are a big thing. Predominantly, over the years, blues, reds, and greens have been the colors. But now we're getting the entire rainbow.

The other one that's been an interesting one that's really been developing over the years is ghost shells, where the shell goes up, and it starts with one color, then it goes dark, then it becomes another color, then it goes dark, and it kind of transitions.

NINA MOINI: Oh, yeah!

WILL WALLUS: So you get one effect that does multiple things.

NINA MOINI: Super-cool. Well, Will, thank you so much for stopping by Minnesota Now. I learned a lot.

WILL WALLUS: Awesome. Well, thank you for having us.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. Will Wallus is the CEO and President of RES Pyro based in Belle Plaine.